works of his besides his history, but they were comparatively unimport­ant.

The fragments of Phylarchus have been collected by Lucht, Leipzig, 1836; by Bruck­ner, Breslau, 1838, and by C. and Th. Miiller, in the Fragm. Histor. Gr&c., vol. i., p. 334, seqq., in Didot's Bibliotheca Grceca, Paris, 1841, 8vo.

IX. ister ("Icrrpos),1 a Greek historian, who is sometimes called a na­tive of Gyrene, sometimes of Macedonia, and sometimes of Paphos, in the island of Cyprus. These contradictory statements are reconciled by Sie-belis, on the supposition that Ister was born at Gyrene, that thence he proceeded with Callimachus to Alexandrea, and afterward lived for some time at Paphos, which was subject to the kings of Egypt.2 Ister is said to have been at first a slave of Callimachus, and afterward his friend, and this circumstance determines his age, since he accordingly lived in the reign of Ptolemy Euergetes, that is, between about B.C. 250 and B.C. 220. Ister was the author of a considerable number of works, all of which are lost, with the exception of some fragments. The most im­portant of his works was an AttMs (5Ar0ts), or History of Attica, of which the sixteenth book is mentioned by Harpocration.

X. polybius (TloXvftios),3 the celebrated historian, was a native of Megalopolis, in Arcadia, and was born about B.C. 204. His father, Ly-cortas, was one of the most distinguished men of the Achaean league; and Polybius received the advantages of his father's instruction in polit­ical knowledge and the military art. He must also have reaped great benefit from his intercourse with Philoposmen, who was a friend of his father's, and on whose death, in B.C. 182, Polybius carried the urn in which his ashes were deposited. In the following year Polybius was appointed one of the ambassadors to Egypt, but he did not leave Greece, as the intention of sending an embassy was abandoned. From this time he probably began to take part in public affairs, and he appears to have soon obtained great influence among his countrymen. After the con­quest of Macedonia in B.C. 168, the Roman commissioners, who were sent into the south of Greece, commanded, at the instigation of Callicra-tes, that one thousand Achaeans should b,e carried to Rome, to answer the charge of not having assisted the Romans against Perseus. This number included all the best and noblest part of the nation, and among them was Polybius. They arrived in Italy in B.C. 167, but, instead of being put upon their trial, they were distributed among the Etruscan towns.

Polybius was more fortunate than the rest of his countrymen. He had probably become acquainted in Greece with ^Emilius Paulus, or his sons Fabius and Scipio, and the two young men now obtained permission from the piaetor for Polybius to reside at Rome, in the house of their fa-